This weekend I'm heading off to Soul Survivor as one of the leaders for our church youth group, plus some other teenagers who are tagging along with us. Last year was my first time and as I arrived home and crawled through the front door at around 2am, lugging my baggage behind me, I tiredly voiced the words "never again" like some sort of half paralysed zombie who'd only just made it out alive from the apocalypse.
Yet, here I am, about to 'do it again', and I can't wait! So what's calling me back? The quagmire we pitch our tents in? The sanitary towel wallpapered shower blocks? The return journey home in the middle of the night?
As a Christian I had felt the presence of the Holy Spirit personally in my life before and seen it in others, but I hadn't been anywhere to witness the movement on a grand scale, and I must admit last year I was a bit apprehensive as to what would occur and how much of it would be real and how much would be teenage hype. I'd heard the stories of the place erupting in hysterical laughter and people collapsing left, right and centre and it all seemed a bit weird and unnecessary to me.
So I started the week trying to stay very much in control and to not allow myself to be caught up in what was going on, but was just observing and taking it in and wondering if I would be able to resist if I felt myself being drawn in, I was also conscious of the fact I was there as a youth leader and felt I needed to be in control at all times to look after them! I needn't have worried about remaining in control, I only needed to leave that to the Holy Spirit, yes there was laughter and tears and collapsing but it was in His control and being in the midst of it didn't feel weird at all, it was a privilege.
As each day goes by the momentum of the presence of the Holy Spirit just fills the place and you sing the songs with more feeling, you pray more earnestly and you believe more than you've ever believed before and by the end of the week no matter how much you've resisted, you find yourself surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit and having the most amazing experience because of it!
So of course I want to go back! Who wouldn't want to see the power of Jesus move amongst His children like that?
Oh, and the worship is pretty cool too!
We can all understand and identify with the Father & Son characters in the trinity, we all have a parent and we are all someones child, regardless of how that relationship has been for you, I think it is reasonable to say we can draw a parallel from our experiences to understand the identities of God and Jesus.
So The Holy Spirit, ever known one of those? Is the Holy Spirit there just to translate messages to and fro between us and God? When we finally 'get' a piece of scripture we've read a dozen times, is that the sum of the Holy Spirits role?
You could look at Him like that, but He is so much more.
Last night we read John 16, a passage I have heard many times, but for some reason last night it really moved me. Probably just the Holy Spirit giving me a dig.
7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;
10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
Jesus is telling His disciples He has to leave them and go to Heaven to be with God, but instead another person will be with them in His place, the Holy Spirit.
Jesus sees that as a good thing, as a progression in the plan. The Holy Spirit will highlight to us what is going on in the world. He will bring to our attention the sin in our lives and the need to make it right.
So, how to identify with the Holy Spirit? Ever watched the news and been enraged at injustice? Seen a charity fundraiser with images of starving children and cried in despair? Watched a country get torn apart by war and prayed desperately for peace?
If there were no God, you wouldn't feel emotion at such things, the Holy Spirit is God and we do all feel there are terrible injustices, that is the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to the truth around us.
Jesus took the form of man, so when He was on earth He could only talk to the people who were with and around Him, He couldn't be all over the world at once. God is in Heaven and we are on earth, the Holy Spirit is on earth so that God and Jesus can be with us whoever or wherever we are at all times.
What has the Holy Spirit revealed to you lately?
This song is very special to me, I'm sure all of us as Christians are in awe of the love Jesus has for us. But when we sang it in Church this morning, it spoke to me differently.
God told me, "I accept your thanks for my sacrifice, but I want you to make some sacrifices, I want you to show the grace & love I have shown you to the ones that have hurt you beyond your understanding"
If I am living and giving my life for Jesus I have to express that in my attitude and actions to others. I can't excuse it with, "but you will never believe how much ..........hurt me".
This has been a battle of mine for a while, and although I have done forgiving and talked and gone over and this and that, I just couldn't seem to get over that final hurdle of letting go of the
hurt. I have prayed and others have prayed (including some of my fellow bloggers!) for a restoration of my marriage, and I really felt God say this morning that I could do it, I could freely give my life to show the grace that I needed to show, because God showed that same grace to me, knowing that I would hurt Him beyond understanding.
I have probably heard or read a million times 'we should live like Jesus and treat others with love etc...' but it is difficult to put into practice unless you are asking God through His Holy Spirit to help you do that. That is why I know that today I understood the words of living my life for Him, to be relevant to what I was going through, because I had been asking God to work in me in that way.
